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Teak-Wallah
Teak-Wallah is the 19th short story in the anthology , published in May 1950. The story is set at an R.A.F. staff college during the Second World War and includes reminiscences of events in Burma. Synopsis The Group Captain of an R.A.F. staff college at a mess dance notices one of his students Flying Officer Charters and his guest, a married woman named Mrs Hatheray, whom he has a relationship with. He doesn't approve of this and summons them over to tell them a story about a brave man he had met while in Burma. Plot (may contain spoilers - click on expand to read) At the annual staff college dance, the Group Captain notices that Flying Officer Charters, a wealthy young and promising pilot, is dancing with an older woman. His adjutant tells him she is Mrs Hatheray, a woman living in the village whom Charters appears to have developed a relationship with. She is married but has asked her husband to consent to a divource so that she could marry Charters. The Group Captain summons the couple over and asks Mrs Hatheray where her husband is. "Somewhere in India," is the most she would say. India was also where the Group Captain had been stationed until recently. Charters notes that that was where the Group Captain had received his bar to the D.S.O. and persuades him to tell his story. The Group Captain tells them that he had been piloting an old Moth floatplane to scout out possible advance landing grounds in Burma but had been caught in the monsoon. The heavy rain so severely damaged his aircraft that he had been forced down on a tributary of the Irrawady River. Leaving his wrecked plane, he managed to find the bungalow of a teak-wallah--the supervisor of a teak logging company. The teak-wallah offered him the hospitality of his bungalow to recuperate. The teak-wallah did not talk very much and the Group Captain never learnt the name of the man but he did notice the photograph of a beautiful girl in a picture frame--the teak wallah's wife. After a few days, a servant reported that Japanese troops were approaching. A reconnaissance revealed that a strong force of Japanese soldiers with artillery and tanks were getting ready to cross the river with a pontoon bridge. Both the teak wallah and the Group Captain realised that should the Japanese get across the river, they would be able to surprise the British forces in the rear. The Japanese must be prevented from crossing. The Group Captain thought, with just the two of them and a few servants, there was little they could do, but the teak-wallah shows how. By the banks of the river, he had many cut teak logs awaiting the time when they would be floated down the river. With his team of logging elephants, the logs would be dragged into the river where the current would carry the logs and smash them like battering rams on the Japanese pontoon bridge. They set to work on this plan through the night but when day was breaking, another reconnaissance revealed a disaster. The logs had formed a logjam, damming the rivera upstream of the bridge. Undeterred, the teak-wallah returned to the bungalow to fetch a crowbar and the picture of his wife. He jumped onto the logjam and prised the logs apart, unleashing the logs and trapped water in a tremendous tidal wave which swept himself, the bridge and the Japanese troops on it away. "What a lovely man," commented Mrs Hatheray. It was a pity the wife never heard about it. Ah but she did, the Group Captain replies, for the woman in the picture was Mrs Hatheray. And the teak wallah probably meant his sacrifice as the answer to her request to release her. Characters *Flying Officer Charters *Hatheray *Mrs Hatheray Aircraft *De Havilland Gipsy Moth Ships Places Visited *The Irrawady in Burma *Munching Research Notes *For parallels, see ** for the use of a Moth floatplane. **Kayan in and the use of teak logs to attack a pontoon bridge. Publication History References Category:Short stories Category:Other short stories Category:Adult short stories